As reported in the Washington Post (via Politech), the Bush administration wants a parallel legal system for terror suspects:
The Bush administration is developing a parallel legal system in which terrorism suspects — U.S. citizens and noncitizens alike — may be investigated, jailed, interrogated, tried and punished without legal protections guaranteed by the ordinary system, lawyers inside and outside the government say.
The elements of this new system are already familiar from President Bush’s orders and his aides’ policy statements and legal briefs: indefinite military detention for those designated "enemy combatants," liberal use of “material witness” warrants, counterintelligence-style wiretaps and searches led by law enforcement officials and, for noncitizens, trial by military commissions or deportation after strictly closed hearings. [&hellip]
Ooh, that’s not good. With shenanigans like these, I’m especially glad that I didn’t vote for the fellow (I voted for Harry Brown instead).
And, Ashcroft is turning into more of a disaster than I would have realized. At the time of his nomination procedings, he seemed harmless enough, but I’ll have give more trust to whichever groups opposed him at the time (can anyone jog my memory and name some of those?).
Ughh… Bush really isn’t even the one I have the problem with. It really is Ashcroft that I’m worried about- he seems to be much more concerned with citizen control than citizen safety. I’m thinking the next two years are going to be rather ugly for those of us concerned with personal privacy and related issues…
Yeah, for the immediate future, Bush isn’t the problem. On the other hand, Ashcroft wouldn’t be here without him ;).